With two weeks left before the president has to step down, Lebanon's parliament speaker postponed presidential elections for the third time to give deadlocked rival factions more time to find a compromise candidate. Parliament, dominated by anti-Syrian legislators, was to meet Monday for another attempt to choose a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who steps down Nov. 24.

Opposition leader Kim Young-sam will pay a visit to the Soviet Union from June 2 to 10, the first by a South Korean political leader, his aides said last week. They said Kim, a runner-up in the 1987 presidential elections, had been invited by Evergeni Primakov, director of the Moscow Institute of World Economy and International Relations.

Former Vice President Al Gore said he was not planning to run for president on the Democratic ticket in 2008. "I'm enjoying what I'm doing," Gore told an audience at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, where he gave a lecture on global warming. Gore, who turns 58 next week, lost to George W. Bush in 2000 in one of the closest presidential elections in history.

President Zine Abidine ben Ali announced Saturday that he will seek election in April in Tunisia's first presidential balloting in 15 years. Ben Ali, 52, took power in November, 1987, ousting Habib Bourguiba, who had ruled for three decades. The presidential elections, the first since 1974, are expected to take place April 2 and will be the first public test of Ben Ali's popularity.

Togolese lobbed stones and Molotov cocktails for a second day after Faure Gnassingbe, the son of their late dictator, was declared the winner of disputed presidential elections. At least six people died and at least 100 were injured in the violence. Opposition leaders alleged widespread fraud in Sunday's vote in the West African nation and called for supporters to continue their protests.

Bush and the Republicans would have a better chance of attracting the female vote if they considered that many of us women are intelligent enough to case our votes based on issues rather than a pretty face. I am a Republican woman who will vote for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in seven presidential elections because I am tired of being ignored and resent being insulted. SANDRA WRIGHT Newport Beach

Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known by the initials PRI, is expected at a convention on Wednesday to formally nominate Luis Donaldo Colosio as its candidate in presidential elections scheduled for next August. Because the PRI has not lost a presidential election since its founding 64 years ago, the nomination will make Colosio, who was social development minister until last month, the automatic presidential front-runner.

Algeria's main militant Muslim group Saturday rejected a call by the country's army-backed government for presidential elections in November, saying the authorities were trying to win legitimacy by force. "The Islamic Salvation Front [FIS] refuses point-blank these elections as they are proposed by the putschists. . . ," the outlawed group said in a statement signed by one of its spokesmen, Anwar Haddam, from his exile in Washington.

Poland set Nov. 25 as the date for presidential elections that could replace ex-Communist Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa. The announcement followed two weeks of frenzied parliamentary activity to pass legislation cutting short Jaruzelski's term. He announced Sept. 18 that he wants to step down to avoid becoming a focus for public protests.